Where the Florida Panthers Goalie Situation Stands Post-Seth Jones Trade

Now that Spencer Knight is gone, where do the Florida Panthers stand in net? We take a look at the short-term and the long-term aspects of it.

The Florida Panthers made a massive splash on Saturday night, shipping Spencer Knight and a first-round pick off to the Chicago Blackhawks in exchange for star blue liner Seth Jones.

Jones’ arrival solves an immediate need — a power play quarterback who can log big minutes — but the trade now leaves the Panthers with a couple of questions.

So, who is going to back up Sergei Bobrovsky now?

Who is going to take over for the 36-year-old Bobrovsky when he inevitably regresses due to age?

Spencer Knight was supposed to be the answer to both of those questions, but the Panthers believed that losing him is a risk worth taking in order to acquire a player of Jones’ caliber.

What are they left with, though?

Let’s take a look.

Who can back-up Sergei Bobrovsky right now?

The Panthers have two goaltenders who are available to be called up from AHL Charlotte right now to be Bobrovsky’s back up.

Chris Driedger, the veteran option of the two, is having one of his worst seasons number-wise of his 11-year professional career. The 30-year-old netminder is 10-6-6 with a .878 save percentage and a 2.97 goals-against average in Charlotte. The numbers are not pretty, but the Panthers watched Driedger put up a 14-6-3 effort with a .927 save percentage and a 2.07 goals-against average as Bobrovsky’s back-up in 2020-21.

The question is whether the Panthers can trust that level of production can come back after injuries kept him either off the ice or in the AHL for most of his Seattle Kraken tenure that separated his two Florida stints.

Undrafted rookie Cooper Black is the only other goaltender Florida has under contract who is ready available to be called up from Charlotte. The 23-year-old is 8-2-2 with a .923 save percentage and a 1.63 goals-against average. But with only 18 professional starts under his belt, it may be too early for him to make the jump to the NHL level.

Florida could also look outside the organization for help and make a trade before the deadline. They are currently sitting right at the salary cap ceiling after making the Jones trade — they will have to make a transaction in order to add a goaltender to the roster, however — but if they place Matthew Tkachuk on long-term injured reserve, they will have another $6 million to work with to fill that hole.

The only catch with that is that they would not be able to bring Tkachuk back from his apparent groin injury he sustained at the 4 Nations Face-Off during the regular season.

Florida could look to acquire the expiring contract of Calgary’s Dan Vladar ($2.2 million), San Jose’s Vitek Vanecek or Alexandar Georgiev ($3.4 million each), or Utah’s Karel Vejmelka to fill that hole.

With five back-to-backs remaining on the schedule, the Panthers may very well want a more trustworthy option behind Bobrovsky down the stretch.

What are the Florida Panthers’ options in net in the future?

The short answer is that nobody knows.

Florida employs a staff of experts headed by Roberto Luongo specifically to identity and develop goaltending talent. They identified and developed Alex Lyon and Anthony Stolarz as players who could be solid back-ups on Stanley Cup Final bound teams and Cooper Black may very well be one of a few young goaltenders the team has in the pipeline.

Kirill Gerasimyuk, who the team drafted in the fifth round of the 2021 NHL Draft, may be the most highly-touted option the team has for the future. He is currently 4-7-7 with a .927 save percentage and a 1.91 goals-against average with Yugoslav Khanty-Mansisyk of the VHL (Russia’s second-highest tier league behind the KHL.)

The Panthers have given their goaltending department a draft choice to make every year since starting it, adding Denis Gabdrakhmanov, Olof Gifford, Tyler Muzelik to the pool after selecting Gerasimyuk in 2021.

Florida could also find its goaltender of the future via free agency just as they did with Bobrovsky.

For now, we will have to wait and see.